A pioneer in the field of trauma therapy talks about his new memoir. Also, a new exhibit will highlight stories and feature artwork by incarcerated women. And finally, NPR launches a new podcast that is part-interview, part-game show.
S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. Today's show is about San Diego's arts and culture scene. I'm Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hindman. Here's to conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. A local author who pioneered a form of trauma therapy , talks about his new memoir , An Autobiography of Trauma.
S2: You know , again , when trauma was defined as PTSD , it was already 12 or 13 years after I started working with trauma. So I didn't have that definition in my mind. And in that definition , trauma was seen to be a brain disorder or even a brain disease that at best could be managed with medications and with helping people change their negative thoughts. And I realized that it was something that also happened and happens primarily in the body.
S2: The idea is that because trauma is something that happens in the body that we come to the body , we need to address how it got stuck in the body so that we can move through. Because if we're just looking for the content or what happened or you know , what didn't happen , it really it misses the point that when we are able to shift out of these , these states of , of of hyper arousal and shutdown in our bodies , then we come back into , into the here and now , into present time.
S2: And by the way , in Somatic Experiencing , it's not necessary that we relive our traumas. And that's not sometimes images , sometimes associations , sometimes body memories will come up. Uh , but it's not necessary to remember them. What's necessary is to find where the body got stuck and to let that come to completion , as I just did with this simple exercise with the shoulders. And so when we're doing that , this is the person who was again , hit by a parent.
S2: Yeah. You know , when you feel deeply upset or even upset , the first thing we should do is just see where that is registering in our bodies , to see how we hold it in our bodies , and then to start gradually letting it go. Letting it continue to complete its own course of action. So if it's the racing against being hit , then to actually feel the position of the shoulders and notice what happens if that tension increases and then slightly increasing it and letting it go.
S3: So I had the pleasure of meeting Katie Turner , who is the director for the California Poetic Justice. Through my course. At that time , I was a doctoral student at San Diego State University , and I had the opportunity to create a course and teach it to the Webers Honors College. And my course was called Craft of Wisdom.
S4: Yeah. So I have been with Poetic Justice for a little over two years now. I started when I was in college , and I became a facilitator at the California Institution for women , which is one of two women's prisons in California , and I have been facilitating classes in there for two years.
S4: So , um , one of the I think when we we start every class , you know , a lot of them say like , I'm not a writer or like , you know , we're working with people who have varying levels of , of education. So , you know , we always tell them , like , the biggest thing is to just like , get your emotions out on paper.
S4: Yeah , I , I often think that it's it's it's very easy to ignore incarceration. You know , you're not faced with these people. Uh , these people are quite literally taken out of our societies. Um , so , you know , the point of having these large scale photos and , and placing them in a public places is so that they can't be unseen , you know , once they are seen. And the whole purpose and structuring of this show is to kind of allow people to check their own biases.
S1: That's just ahead on Midday Edition. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Andrew Bracken , filling in for Jade Hindman. The voices we hear through our smartphones and radio often become a familiar part of our days. They help us get out of bed in the morning and help make our commutes just a little more enjoyable. One voice that's done that for millions of NPR listeners over the years is Rachel Martin.
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